USING SIMULATION TO ANALYZE INTEGRATED TOOL PERFORMANCE IN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING

The use of integrated tools in semiconductor manufacturing has increased rapidly over the last few years. Increased clustering of process modules can make the sequential process steps more reliable. But the advent of clustering also made parallel processing possible. The combined effect is usually increased manufacturing productivity through lower cycle times and/or greater throughput. However, this difference in productivity can be difficult to quantify. Detailed simulation models of integrated tools provide a means to evaluate the various performance characteristics as a function of application specific process and equipment parameters.